Saturday, August 1, 2009

Jousting guide redux

A couple of days ago, Turpster posted a video on WoW.com explaining how to do the Argent Tournament jousting quests.

Ever so slightly annoying is the fact that I had actually planned to update my jousting for beginners guide, and make a video of it - just a day before he posted his. Darn it. So now I look like I'm riding around on his coattails.

But I don't care, I'm gonna do it anyway!

Not exactly as polished as his, though :P

My small criticism of Turpster's video is that while it does go through each of the abilities and explains what they do and how they all tie in together, it doesn't really show you how to move around while you joust - there's a bit too much close up melee mashing, and the inset Turpster screen often obscures your view of what's going on. I think being zoomed in to almost first person mode doesn't really help you get an idea of what is happening. Basically, what he's telling you to do and what you're seeing on the screen don't match up very clearly.

I wanted to show the method that I think the majority of people use, showing the positioning and movement (zoomed out), plus give a few tips that I have picked up from others.

Three methods for three skill levels

There are probably a number of ways to do this, but here are three methods catering to various skill and experience levels.

Note: For all methods, you need to begin by facing the center of the ring.

Method 1 - for absolute beginners(or for those who just can't seem to win!)1. Get 3 stacks of Defend up.2. Talk to the NPC.3. As he runs away, throw a Shield-Breaker, and then run towards him to close range (or he will charge you). If he took off any of your Defends, reapply.4. When you are in melee range, spam Thrust.5. Whenever the NPC runs away, throw a Shield-Breaker and then follow him to get back in range and to stop him from charging you.6. Get back into melee range and continue to spam Thrust.

This method can be summed up as "never let the NPC get range on you to charge or shield-break, and slowly whittle them down with melee attacks."

It's slow, but it is pretty much guaranteed to get you through the quest in once piece.

Method 2 - Intermediate (the common method)1. Get 3 stacks of Defend up.2. Talk to the NPC.3. As he runs away, spam Charge until it goes off.4. Swing around in an arc, and throw Shield-Breaker as you move back around to melee range.5. Get back into melee range and spam Thrust.6. Whenever the NPC walks away from you, back up and spam Charge until it goes off, then repeat steps 4 and 5.

The basic idea here is that anytime the NPC walks away, you want to Charge and Shield-Break them to remove stacks of their defend. Charge also does bonus damage. Then once his shields are down, you can spam Thrust as much as you can until he walks away again.

Optional: some people prefer to begin by throwing a shield breaker and THEN charge the NPC. This will nett you more damage, because you're removing one Defend with Shield-Breaker before you charge, which then makes your Charge do more damage. So this is a good way to do it.

However, I don't do it this way because of my high latency - I can't time a shield breaker AND a charge before the NPC decides to charge me instead. On the other hand, it is extremely easy to mash my Charge button, then shield break afterwards. It is still a very effective method, and you're only missing out on a small amount of damage at the very start.

If you have high latency, or you're not so great with keybindings, charge+shieldbreak is probably going to be easier for you than shieldbreak+charge, and it won't make a huge difference.

Method 3 - Advanced (very fast method)1. Get 3 stacks of Defend up.2. Stand behind the NPC to talk to him.3. As soon as you have hit "I am ready to fight", hit Thrust.4. Back up a few steps as the NPC runs away, throw a Shield-Breaker, and then Charge. 5. As you charge, hit Thrust again, to do additional damage on the way past.6. Swing around in an arc, and throw Shield-Breaker as you move back around to melee range.7. Get back into melee range and spam Thrust.8. When your Charge cooldown is almost ready, run away from the NPC, then do a 180 degree jump-turn, and Charge him. Hit Shield-Breaker on the way back around, as above. Get back into melee range, spam Thrust, and repeat this step.

Remember to try to keep your stacks of Defend up as much as you can. One mistake Turpster makes is that he says you should "mash" your Defend button - don't do this. It will put your Charge and Shield-Breaker abilities on cooldown. If the NPC removes one or more of your charges of Defend, reapply - but don't mash this button otherwise, there's no need.

I've made a very quick and dirty video showing how to charge/shield break at the start, as well as jump-turning and charging. It's not as shiny and pretty as Turpster's, but it shows the basics, I think. Try to ignore the pet birds in the background, and be gentle about my blatant keyboard turning in some parts (I actually use a weird hybrid method of half keyboard, half mouse turning).

YouTube video: Jousting - how to (1:33) NB: Volume may be a little loud - sorry if it is!

The above two videos put my little one to shame.. but I made mine to help people who have problems with charging and moving around. When I was first learning, I was frustrated by how wide the turning circle of my mount was - which usually caused me to have my Defends taken off, and I would take a lot of damage. I didn't realise I could use this sweeping circle to my advantage to hit the NPC with Shield-Breaker on the way back (something that I hadn't tried until blog commenters mentioned it). It's something that beginners may like to graduate too after using the "safe" method.

Turpster's video is really high quality and very entertaining, and explains the fundamentals of how each ability works, which is important.

My problem with probably 90% of "guide" videos - for anything in WoW - is that they are 5-10 minutes long, and a lot of them contain a lot of fluff that I don't really need to see (even if it's fun and entertaining).

Just show me the moves and let me get out of here!

Like the millions of boss fight guides out there where it's just some DPSer Frapsing the entire fight of him standing under the boss' butt, and then talking over the top about how to do it. The narrative doesn't fit what's happening on the screen.

Compare and contrast with say, Tankspot or Fusion videos, which are zoomed out so you can see, and have arrows and whatnot showing you exactly what's going on and what to do.

Sadly I don't have the knowledge or the equipment to make something of that quality :P

The two other videos I linked are VERY thorough. But again, a bit long for me.. I don't need to see a 5 minute video.. just show me the basic moves, and then give me a list to tell me the process.

But.. everyone learns differently, so it's great that there are a few different guide formats.

I started using the beginner method (which I wrote about previously) because I was terrible at it, and just needed a way to get the quest done, even if it took twice as long.

Then I graduated to Method 2, and also added in the extra charges etc, to speed things up. If lag doesn't get me, I can usually finish in about 40 seconds (the normal ones, not the hacker Champions).

I've tried and tried to do the advanced stuff, with the stabbing and shield break at the start.. but my latency will NOT let me do it. In fact in the video a couple of times you can see where I'm at charge range but charge doesn't go off - and at one time, the charge goes off when I'm standing on top of him!

So I can't be too fancy.. but the second method + a few more charges works very well.